The related application discloses a new form or type of integrated circuitry which effectively and efficiently combines and maximizes the various advantages of processors, application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), and field programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), while minimizing potential disadvantages. The related application illustrates a new form or type of integrated circuit (“IC”), referred to as an adaptive computing engine (“ACE”), which provides the programming flexibility of a processor, the post-fabrication flexibility of FPGAs, and the high speed and high utilization factors of an ASIC. This ACE integrated circuitry is readily adaptable (or reconfigurable), is capable of having corresponding, multiple modes of operation, and further minimizes power consumption while increasing performance, with particular suitability for low power applications, such as for use in hand-held and other battery-powered devices.
This ACE integrated circuitry, however, without something more, is essentially an empty or “blank” device. More particularly, configuration or adaptation information is required to generate, in advance or in real-time (or potentially at a slower rate), the adaptations and re-adaptations which provide and create one or more operating modes for the ACE circuit, such as wireless communication, radio reception, personal digital assistance (“PDA”), MP3 music playing, or any other desired functions. (As used herein, the terminology “adaptation” and “re-adaptation”, is equivalent to and inclusive of terminology such as “configuration” and “reconfiguration”, as used in the related applications and as utilized in the art.)
The second related application discloses a preferred system embodiment that includes an ACE integrated circuit coupled with one or more sets of configuration or adaptation information. This configuration or adaptation information is required and utilized to generate, in advance or in real-time (or potentially at a slower rate), the adaptations and re-adaptations which provide and create one or more operating modes for the ACE circuit, such as wireless communication, radio reception, PDA functions, MP3 or MP4 music playing, or any other desired functions. Various methods, apparatuses and systems are also illustrated in the second related application for generating and providing configuration or adaptation information for an ACE integrated circuit, for determining ACE reconfiguration or re-adaptation capacity or capability, for providing secure and authorized configurations, and for providing appropriate monitoring of configuration and content usage.
A new opportunity is presented, however, by this ability to provide a “blank” device, while independently (and possibly subsequently) providing a configuration or adaptation for its operating mode, and also while independently (and possibly subsequently) providing its data or other content, such as music, a novel, a report, video, multimedia, or any other type of content. This opportunity is to remove this independence and provide a novel inseparability or marriage of the “hardware” (namely, the blank device and its configuration) with corresponding content or other data.
This potential for a novel inseparability of hardware and content, as discussed in greater detail below, may provide many advantages in a digital, interconnected or “wired” world. For example, the provision of purportedly secure and copyrighted content, via DVD and its encryption technology, has proved to be readily decryptable, allowing corresponding copyright infringement, with substantive protection afforded only through non-technological means, such as through potential enforcement of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, among other provisions.
As a consequence, a need remains for an apparatus, method and system having a capability for secure and authorized content transfer or transmission, which is not subject to readily available decryption methodologies.